Text/Comrade Guevara
In the hit historical drama "Daming Style", "Female Number One" Sun Ruowei was portrayed as a sincere and frank, affectionate and righteous strange woman. In fact, the historical prototype of Sun Ruowei is the Empress Xiaogongzhang of the Ming Dynasty, but her real image is quite poor, and her reputation is extremely poor, and she is even called "a generation of demon queens". So, what ugly things did Sun Shi do that made him disliked by the world?
Sun's real name and year of birth are unknown, a native of Zouping, Shandong, and the daughter of Sun Zhong, the chief of Yongcheng County, Henan. Sun grew up in Yongcheng from an early age, and was famous in the county for his beautiful appearance and courtesy, and gradually attracted the attention and love of Lady Peng Chengbo. Lady Peng Chengbo was the mother of Empress Chengxiao Zhang (the wife of Emperor Akihito Zhu Gaozi), who was in and out of the court from time to time, and once when she was chatting with her daughter, she accidentally mentioned the Sun clan and praised her, and the Zhang clan was quite interested after hearing it.
At the age of 10, Sun Entered the Palace to Serve Zhu Zhanji
At that time, Zhang's eldest son, Zhu Zhanji, was ten years old, and according to the tradition of the imperial family, he had reached the age of choosing a partner, and Ming Chengzu, out of his love for his grandson, was also zhang Luo. Because of this, Zhang recommended Sun to Ming Chengzu and asked her to enter the palace to serve Zhu Zhanji, and was approved by his father-in-law in the eighth year of Yongle (1410). After Sun Entered the Palace, in addition to serving Zhu Zhanji, he also learned the etiquette in the palace under the guidance of his mother-in-law Zhang Shi, and his progress was quite rapid.
Sun Shi is not only beautiful and intelligent, but also gets along with Zhu Zhanji day and night since childhood, and his feelings are very deep. Therefore, Zhu Zhanji made a vow with Sun Shi very early that when he became an adult, he would definitely make her a proper wife. However, what Zhu Zhanji did not expect was that at the canonization ceremony in the fifteenth year of Yongle (1417), Ming Chengzu personally selected Hu Shanxiang as his wife, while Sun Shi only received the title of concubine (equivalent to concubine). Although Zhu Zhanji did not dare to disobey his grandfather's will, he was always very unwilling in his heart.
Zhu Zhanji and Sun Shi's green plum bamboo horse, unusually affectionate
Therefore, after Zhu Zhanji ascended the throne, he immediately made Sun Shijin a noble concubine, and made an exception to give her a golden book and a treasure seal (only the empress could enjoy such treatment before), in May of the first year of Xuande (1426). Not only that, Ming Xuanzong also favored Sun Guifei in the palace, spending more time with her than other concubines, and even Empress Hu was not as favored as her. To say that Sun Guifei's life was really good enough, soon after Emperor Xuanzong ascended the throne, he gave birth to his eldest son Zhu Qizhen, which made the emperor very happy.
While Sun Guifei was favored by fate, empress Dowager Hu Shanxiang's position became increasingly embarrassing. It turned out that although Hu Shanxiang was a generation of empresses, he served Emperor Xuanzong of Ming for many years, but only gave birth to two princesses instead of princes. Not only that, Hu Shanxiang was a serious and upright person, and often advised Ming Xuanzong not to indulge excessively in activities such as hunting and literary and artistic creation, so as not to neglect government affairs and damage his body. At first, the young and vigorous Ming Xuanzong was able to accept opinions with an open mind, but after a long time, he felt noisy and bored, and then he had the idea of abolishing it.
Empress Hu Shanxiang was deposed without any fault
In the third year of Xuande (1428), Emperor Xuanzong, under the seduction of Sun Guifei, ignored the advice of his important courtiers and ordered Empress Hu to resign "on her own initiative" on the grounds that she was childless and ill, and then appointed Sun Guifei as empress. After Hu Shanxiang was deposed, he was discouraged and simply became a Taoist nun. Although Hu Shanxiang was deposed, Empress Zhang still cared about this virtuous daughter-in-law, and from time to time invited her into the palace to ask for warmth. Not only that, whenever a banquet was held in the palace, Empress Zhang would order someone to place Hu Shanxiang's seat above Empress Sun, often making the latter unhappy.
Although Ming Li was secretly despised and ostracized by her mother-in-law, fortunately, Ming Xuanzong's love for her was undiminished, and her son Zhu Qizhen had been made crown prince, so Empress Sun's happiness was still bursting. Unfortunately, just 7 years after Sun Shi ascended the throne, Ming Xuanzong, who was only 38 years old, died of illness in the first month of the tenth year of Xuande (1435). After the death of Emperor Xuanzong of Ming, the 9-year-old crown prince Zhu Qizhen took the throne as Emperor Yingzong of Ming, while Sun Shi ascended the throne as empress dowager.
Sun replaced Hu Shanxiang as empress
At the beginning of Emperor Ming's reign, the government was controlled behind the scenes by Empress Dowager Zhang, and Empress Sun's influence in politics was minimal, and her influence was not increased until her mother-in-law died in October of the seventh year of orthodoxy (1442). However, compared with her mother-in-law, Empress Sun's political wisdom and decisiveness were much worse, so that the eunuch Wang Zhen dared to control the government of the dynasty, bringing irreparable trauma to the empire. In the fourteenth year of orthodoxy (1449), Emperor Mingyingzong, at the instigation of Wang Zhen, marched north to Walla, only to be surrounded and annihilated by the enemy at Tumu Fort, and was eventually defeated and captured.
Convinced that her son would not be able to return to The Capital in the short term, Empress Sun was forced to accept the advice of Shangshu Yuqian and others to put Zhu Qiyu (Ming Yingzong's half-brother) the Prince of Qi on the throne as Emperor Mingjing. After Zhu Qiyu came to power, she did not mention the matter of welcoming her brother back, and Empress Sun did not dare to protest against this, but could only express her longing for her son by sending someone to send a cold cotton coat to Emperor Mingyingzong.
Ming Yingzong Zhuqi Town
Fortunately, at the mercy of heaven, Yang Shan, the left attendant of the Rebbe, was ordered to go on an envoy to Walla, and even made a good claim to welcome Ming Yingzong back to Beijing in August of the first year of Jingtai (1450). After Ming Yingzong returned to Beijing, although he was honored as the Emperor Taishang, he was imprisoned in the Nangong Palace, resembling a "high-ranking prisoner". For the next 7 years, Empress Sun carefully protected the imprisoned Zhu Qizhen and her grandson Zhu Jianshen from harm. At the same time, Empress Sun was secretly contacting forces loyal to Emperor Ming, ready to counterattack at any time.
In the first month of the eighth year of Jingtai (1457), taking advantage of Emperor Jing's serious illness, Empress Sun took a decisive step and instructed the ministers Xu Youzhen, Shi Heng, and others to take the opportunity to launch a "change to seize the door" and re-establish the restoration of Emperor Yingzong of Ming ("Shi Heng plotted to seize the door, secretly white in the empress, Xu Zhi. See Ming Shi Vol. 113). From this, it can be seen that the reason why Ming Yingzong was able to restore, her mother Empress Sun can be described as a great contribution. Not only that, during her son's second term of office, Empress Sun also urged him to abolish the concubine martyrdom system, which can be described as a great contribution.
Sun Shi was later known as the "Queen of a Generation"
In September of the sixth year of Tianshun (1462), Empress Sun, who was about 60 years old, died, ending her extraordinary life. Throughout Sun's life, although she had good deeds in her later years to propose the abolition of the martyrdom system, because she used conspiracies and tricks to exclude Empress Hu, and sat by the eunuch Wang Zhen and did nothing, she was criticized in later generations, and even called "a generation of demon queens", which was probably unexpected by her.
Historical source: "History of the Ming Dynasty"